Cubs Acquire Cole Hamels from Rangers

[jerichoholicninja]

Even if they essentially get him for free I don't see this as a great get for the Cubs. Does it make them better? Sure, but not much better.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Even if they essentially get him for free I don't see this as a great get for the Cubs. Does it make them better? Sure, but not much better.

 

It's almost like insurance to limit how many innings their position players need to pitch. Hamels will give them innings, but I doubt he's going to be a quality start machine. That will actually be valuable to them with the limited # of days off they have left, particularly in august/early september when teams are gearing up for the stretch run.

 

It makes a ton of sense for them to get another starter based on what their current rotation makeup is - it also makes sense that they couldn't acquire a better option aside from a declining and expensive veteran because they have no prospect capital to work with anymore.

[StearnsFTW]

Love how we try to rationalize that all the Cubs moves are terrible.

 

They basically gave up nothing and acquired Hamels to be their 5th starter.

 

They will have Lester, Darvish, Quintana, Hendricks and Hamels for the playoffs.

 

All 5 pitchers are arguably better than any of our current starters.

 

There's no rationalization. Hamels sucks.

 

Yeah, they gave up nothing, but he could, and probably will, cost them wins. Nothing significant, but he's been absolutely awful the last month, and wasn't great before that.

 

Could be a change of scenery will be good for him. I personally doubt it. I'd say the same thing if the Brewers acquired him, and will say the same thing if the Brewers acquire Matt Harvey, who also sucks.

[adambr2]

Love how we try to rationalize that all the Cubs moves are terrible.

 

They basically gave up nothing and acquired Hamels to be their 5th starter.

 

They will have Lester, Darvish, Quintana, Hendricks and Hamels for the playoffs.

 

All 5 pitchers are arguably better than any of our current starters.

 

Pretty much everyone but you said Hamels was garbage well before the Cubs were even in on him. You even acknowledged that others disagreed. Then he was traded to the Cubs which changed no ones feelings that he is still garbage.

 

Has nothing to do with rationalizing the Cubs' moves.

[A Swing and A Drive]

I liked the comment that it's insurance to limit the amount of innings their position players need to pitch.

 

That made me laugh.

[KeithStone53151]

Love how we try to rationalize that all the Cubs moves are terrible.

 

They basically gave up nothing and acquired Hamels to be their 5th starter.

 

They will have Lester, Darvish, Quintana, Hendricks and Hamels for the playoffs.

 

All 5 pitchers are arguably better than any of our current starters.

 

Pretty much everyone but you said Hamels was garbage well before the Cubs were even in on him. You even acknowledged that others disagreed. Then he was traded to the Cubs which changed no ones feelings that he is still garbage.

 

Has nothing to do with rationalizing the Cubs' moves.

 

And it is easily arguable that many in our rotation at the very minimum match up with everyone on that list except Quintana. My biggest concern with them getting Hamels, is that he was a guy going through the motions in the last year of his deal...and will have some fire for the stretch run now that games actually matter. His last 5 starts were against mostly awful opponents and he posted a 10+ ERA...which doesn't factor in quite a few unearned runs as well.

 

And regarding rotation, we are very likely to be bullpening a majority of any playoff games...and very few bullpens can match up with ours. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 3 man rotation and 9 or 10 man bullpen.

[sveumrules]

Love how we try to rationalize that all the Cubs moves are terrible.

 

They basically gave up nothing and acquired Hamels to be their 5th starter.

 

They will have Lester, Darvish, Quintana, Hendricks and Hamels for the playoffs.

 

All 5 pitchers are arguably better than any of our current starters.

 

The reason they gave up nothing is because that is Hamels value at this point.

 

It's a no brainer move on their part, though. Their other options aren't any better so why not roll the dice on a name guy having a bad season & hope the change of scenery/pennant race reinvigorates him?

 

The Cubs starters definitely have more recognizable names, but their results haven't lived up to their reputations thus far. Brewers SP: 3.86 ERA/4.35 FIP, Cubs SP: 4.04 ERA/4.76 FIP. Hamels (4.72 ERA/5.20 FIP) should hopefully fit right in.

[xisxisxis]

The Cubs offense is so much better than the Brewers that any slight improvement in their pitching makes them that much better...

 

To date the Cubs score 1 more run a game then they allow, the Brewers score 0.4 runs a game more than they allow. Over 57-60 games that will make a huge difference in why the Cubs coast to another division win and the Brewers will hope to make the wild card play-in game...

 

Anyone not thinking this move doesn't make the Cubs better has their head in the sand...

[JohnBriggs12]

In his last 5 starts, he's gone 22 innings, allowed 37 hits and 29 runs of which 25 were earned. Four of the teams he faced were among the worst offenses in baseball: Padres, White Sox, Tigers and O's.

 

Peter Gammons was on The Score this morning and actually used the excuse it was the Texas heat that was getting to Hamels. Really?

 

Can't see how he helps the Cubs, but I guess you never know. Up until those 5 starts, he wasn't bad though overall the Rangers were 7-13 in his 20 starts.

[StearnsFTW]

The Cubs offense is so much better than the Brewers that any slight improvement in their pitching makes them that much better...

 

To date the Cubs score 1 more run a game then they allow, the Brewers score 0.4 runs a game more than they allow. Over 57-60 games that will make a huge difference in why the Cubs coast to another division win and the Brewers will hope to make the wild card play-in game...

 

Anyone not thinking this move doesn't make the Cubs better has their head in the sand...

 

Never let facts get in the way of a good argument. I mean, the post literally right before yours points out his FIP as a horrendous 5.20.

 

Edit: The Cubs may very well win the division, but it won't be because of Cole freakin' Hamels.

[xisxisxis]

Trade deadline passed already?

 

How did that Santana trade go... oh wait, that never happened... How many billion times we we assured that he would make a deal?

 

Sure, 4 more days to trade for Matt Harvey... or add another RP... we can wait just like we waited for the trade of Santana... Stearns needs to figure out the complexities of dealing because adding another RP when you haven't done anything else or have another deal ready to go down then you just wasted a prospect for a rental of another RP who can't hit and play C/SS/2B... Once he acquired Yelich and Cain, other GMs knew he had to jettison Santana and they modified their offers... He needs to start working the chess board and stop playing checkers... And before everyone piles on I do think he's done an excellent job so far, but his shortcomings dealing with a fluid market/environment were clear at the last trade deadline, this offseason, and it's not looking good now...

[xisxisxis]

Never let facts get in the way of a good argument. I mean, the post literally right before yours points out his FIP as a horrendous 5.20.

 

I never let small samples influence how I evaluate a player because that would be just stupid...

[rickh150]

Hamels' road numbers are excellent, along with his Wrigley stats where he threw a no hitter.

Road- 2.93 ERA

 

His day game numbers, however, are terrible... 0-6. 6 GS 8.28 ERA

[pacopete4]

Worrying about what the Cubs do or don’t do would be the stupid thing. Stearns has a job to give us a chance to win this season and set us up for future seasons. Hamels wasn’t going to move the needle. Not sure why some want to keep getting so upset every time the Cubs make a move.

[Ennder]

Love how we try to rationalize that all the Cubs moves are terrible.

 

They basically gave up nothing and acquired Hamels to be their 5th starter.

 

They will have Lester, Darvish, Quintana, Hendricks and Hamels for the playoffs.

 

All 5 pitchers are arguably better than any of our current starters.

 

 

All 5 pitchers are also arguably worse than most of our current starters.

 

Lester xFIP is 4.63

Darvish is 4.23 and he is hurt

Quintana is 4.45

Hendricks is 4.03

Hamels is 4.18

 

Given the injury situation and how awful Chatwood has been the Cubs needed a back end starter much more than we did. They have just hidden the fact by being super amazing at coming back late which it seems like they are doing every single night lately. What we need is a front line starter and none of those are really on the market unless Archer suddenly rebounds.

[xisxisxis]

They have just hidden the fact by being super amazing at coming back late which it seems like they are doing every single night lately.

 

Team______RS____RA___Diff

Brewers___457___413___44

Cubs______518___415__103

 

A simple look at run differential shows there's nothing lucky about the fact the Cubs are ahead of us... In fact, you could argue with their run differential they are unlucky... And as much as the narrative on BF.net that the Brewers bullpen is lights out and the Cubs SP is worse than the Brewers, both teams are very close in number of runs allowed (within 15 once the 3 GP difference is taken into account)...

[A Swing and A Drive]

The Cubs basically paid $5M and no real prospects to add a veteran like Cole Hamels to their rotation for the rest of this season.

 

With the injuries to Suter and Davies and no sign of Nelson contributing this season, I thought that adding a veteran like Hamels to our staff would have been well worth paying that price for the Brewers.

[Ennder]

They have just hidden the fact by being super amazing at coming back late which it seems like they are doing every single night lately.

 

Team______RS____RA___Diff

Brewers___457___413___44

Cubs______518___415__103

 

A simple look at run differential shows there's nothing lucky about the fact the Cubs are ahead of us... In fact, you could argue with their run differential they are unlucky... And as much as the narrative on BF.net that the Brewers bullpen is lights out and the Cubs SP is worse than the Brewers, both teams are very close in number of runs allowed (within 15 once the 3 GP difference is taken into account)...

 

I never said anything about luck, I said they have been amazing at it. The Cubs two best innings by OPS are the 5th and the 7th. In the first 4 innings of games they have scored 185 runs. Innings 5-8 they have scored 258. The pitching has given up 187 runs in the first 4 and 195 in the next 4. So on the year they are at +2 run differential in the first 4 innings and then a whopping +63 in the next 4. They have outscored teams by another 10 runs in the 9th and again in extras too.

 

The Brewers seem to jump on teams and try to hold onto the lead while the Cubs have been falling behind quite often early and then passing teams in the middle and late innings.

[adambr2]

The Cubs basically paid $5M and no real prospects to add a veteran like Cole Hamels to their rotation for the rest of this season.

 

With the injuries to Suter and Davies and no sign of Nelson contributing this season, I thought that adding a veteran like Hamels to our staff would have been well worth paying that price for the Brewers.

 

There are other ways to add a 5 ERA type pitcher to your staff this time of year without spending 5 million dollars.

 

We don't need a "veteran". We need a good starter.

[pacopete4]

The Cubs basically paid $5M and no real prospects to add a veteran like Cole Hamels to their rotation for the rest of this season.

 

With the injuries to Suter and Davies and no sign of Nelson contributing this season, I thought that adding a veteran like Hamels to our staff would have been well worth paying that price for the Brewers.

 

There are other ways to add a 5 ERA type pitcher to your staff this time of year without spending 5 million dollars.

 

We don't need a "veteran". We need a good starter.

 

Yep. If we are going to add to the rotation it should actually be a clear upgrade. If we grabbed Hamels and he continues his terrible pitching, the pitch forks would be outside Miller Park.

[StearnsFTW]

Never let facts get in the way of a good argument. I mean, the post literally right before yours points out his FIP as a horrendous 5.20.

 

I never let small samples influence how I evaluate a player because that would be just stupid...

 

I think that would depend on what argument you were trying to support. That's been the case for a long time.

[A Swing and A Drive]

Everybody loves the "what have you done for me lately" stats.

 

Same reason Brewer fans didn't want a "veteran" like Verlander last season.

 

Just throw out Verlander and Hamels track record of success out the window.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Hamels will pitch 2.50 ERA baseball the rest of the way and at least 1 CG shutout against the Brewers

[brooks_quichenick]

Hamels will pitch 2.50 ERA baseball the rest of the way and at least 1 CG shutout against the Brewers

 

This is our concern, Dude.

[hawing]

I can't help myself. Ever since Cole Hamels and his wife appeared in ads for a luxury condo community in Philadelphia, these are my images of him: https://deadspin.com/5354854/cole-hamels-continues-his-slow-transformation-into-a-doily